Rock Bottom
by MsBlackOut
Summary: After years of battling, Ladybug and Chat Noir finally defeated Hawkmoth but in doing so Chat Noir unleashed cataclysm on their enemy. Only afterward does the superhero discover that he killed his own father and seeks oblivion at the bottom of an empty bottle. His concerned partner comes to check on him as Adrien, learning the disturbing truth while revealing her own. One Shot


_Dear Reader, just a heads up to my usual following. This story is grittier than my regular fan fics, so be warned…_

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Adrien stormed through the mansion with an unbalanced gait. He couldn't stand to live in this place. He hated everything. His fingers tightened their white-knuckle hold on the glass in his hand, while his lip was raised in an all too frequent sneer. With an unsteady hand, he slammed the glass down on the now blemished bar top and gave himself a refill. Liquid fire burned down his throat as he swallowed hard.

Bloodshot eyes squinted blearily at the bottle he'd picked up in attempt to read the label. Smirnoff, ah vodka. He'd mixed it with something else earlier but his mind was fuzzy, just the way he liked it. It made the memories blurry and he loathed them almost as much as himself.

A feminine voice began calling his name. Adrien's eyes narrowed as he lifted his head to listen and he kicked out his fingers to shove the glass away from his trembling hand. He knew that voice. It was Ladybug's voice. Why the fuck was he hearing her voice? Grinding his teeth, the blonde stalked towards his bedroom, shouldering the wall when his balance wasn't so steady, until he threw open the door to his room to glare at the petite figure perched on his windowsill.

"Well, well. To what do I owe the honour?" Adrien viciously spat.

Ladybug winced at his tone. Her own voice was soft. "I wanted to check how you're going."

The blonde raised his arms in the air and resumed sneering. "Up to shit, isn't it obvious?"

Again, she flinched. "I'm sorry about your father."

"Oh, I just bet you are."

"Adrien, I didn't know. Not until after."

Anger burnt through his body with an intensity that made his trembling worse. It was easier to focus on the rage. The guilt and grief were too much to handle. "You could have fixed it," he reminded her coldly as he reached for his now bare finger, habitually ready to twist the ring that was no longer there.

"No, I couldn't. I didn't use my lucky charm." She stated as she slunk down from his window to stand with her hands clasped before her. "Please don't blame Chat Noir for this."

A dark incredulous laugh boomed from Adrien. She still didn't have a clue. "Oh please, you don't know squat."

Her masked brows pulled together in confusion. "But…"

Adrien opened the desk drawer and retrieved his miraculous before slamming it shut. He lifted his hand while holding the mystic jewellery between his finger and thumb. "See this?"

"Yes," she said as her eyes studied the silver ring.

"Does it look familiar?"

"It's the ring you always wear."

A blonde eyebrow quirked at that. "So, you noticed that about me. Interesting." He violently shoved the ring on his finger and Plagg appeared in a flash of light. Adrien stared at Ladybug to gage her reaction to his grumpy kwami. Her mouth dropped open and he found himself distracted momentarily by her plump lips. Ignoring Plagg, he called up his transformation and watched Ladybug sag against the wall as she continued to stare in shock.

"Chat?" she gasped.

"Surprise," he said with a sardonic spin of his cat eyes.

"You're Chat Noir." She said with continued disbelief, as if her mind couldn't wrap around the fact he'd just shown her.

"Yes. So, all this bullshit about it not being Chat's fault can stop. I used cataclysm on Hawkmoth, my own goddamn father and you wouldn't use your lucky charm to bring him back."

Ladybug's jaw began swinging like a rusty hinge. Her lips moving in attempt to enunciate words yet she failed.

Chat Noir prowled towards his partner with less finesse than usual due to his inebriation. He stopped a mere handspan away. "I killed him, but you could have brought him back but you didn't. Miraculous Ladybug would have fixed what I did, but no. Miss Righteous refused to save Hawkmoth."

"He murdered my parents!" she screamed at him.

Rocking back on one foot, Chat Noir's eyes widened as he appraised his partner with surprise. Then his nose crinkled. "Is that why you wouldn't do it? Revenge? Wow, I didn't peg you as the vindictive type, milady."

She flinched back at his previous endearment. Now he made it sound like an insult. "I didn't know he was your father."

"And you think I did? Do you actually think I'd hit someone I care about with my power?" By this stage he was leaning into her space aggressively, the stench of alcohol rolling out of his mouth with each harsh word.

A tear escaped Ladybug's lashes and spilled down her mask. "I'm sorry, Chat. Adrien. I'm sorry. I know it was a last ditch move on your part. But Miraculous Ladybug doesn't bring people back from the dead. I know."

Chat Noir pulled at his own hair with both hands before pivoting away from her and letting out a growl. He yanked the ring from his finger and tossed it across the room. Dirty blonde hair drooped and his body slumped as he sank to his knees. "Fu never should have given me that ring."

Scarlet gloved hands came to rest gently on his shoulders. "He wasn't wrong, Adrien. What Hawkmoth did was wrong. We had to stop him, we just never realised how desperate he'd be about getting our miraculous."

Adrien's shoulders began to shake under her hold. Sobs began to rack his body. "I killed my Dad. What kind of fucked up shit is that? I can't even talk to anyone about it because they don't know I'm Chat Noir."

Ladybug padded around and knelt before him. Her big blue eyes looked at him with sympathy. "I know, Adrien. You can talk to me."

His bottom lip quivered as he stared at her with a desperation built on futility. "I hate myself on a level I don't even know how to describe. I don't know how I'm meant to crawl out of this funk. Shit, I don't know if I even want to. I'm a murderer. A sick fuck that killed his own father."

Gloved fingers caught his chin, lifting it so green eyes met blue. "It was an accident. I know you meant to hit the pillar beside him. I saw the look of horror in your eyes when your hand touched Hawkmoth instead."

"It doesn't matter. I still killed him."

"And he killed my parents and various other people in his desperation. You might have killed him but you potentially saved so many more." With that Ladybug plucked her earrings from her lobes, her magic quickly fading to reveal the woman beneath.

"Marinette?" Adrien gasped, the sadness in his eyes increasing as he recalled her misery when she'd discovered that her parents had been massacred by one of Hawkmoth's more vicious akumas. It was the day they'd learned the limits of Miraculous Ladybug, a truth he'd been denying with the death of his father. Adrien suddenly wrapped her in his arms, realising she was the only person he knew that understood the anguish he was in, because she too carried the burden of superhero responsibilities in silent isolation. "You should have told me."

"I couldn't then, but you know now. While neither of us can share this with anyone else, we still have each other."

Adrien sat back, tucking a tendril of Marinette's hair behind her ear. "Partners to the end, milady?"

"Partners forever, Adrien."

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 **I'd like to dedicate this story to dristi5683, as her story** ** _Friends by Day, Enemies by Night_** **inspired this one shot (see chapter 47). Thank you for reading, reviewing, following and favouriting. If you're after a longer read along a similar vein, you can check out one of my other stories –** ** _Unobtainable_** **. Thanks for your support.**


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